Steve Kerr says his Golden State Warriors are going through a learning process as a very young team.
The Memphis Grizzlies are using their hefty NBA post-season experience to make the lesson as painful as possible.
Zach Randolph scored 22 points and Marc Gasol added 21 points and 15 rebounds as the Grizzlies beat the Warriors 99-89 on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-7 second round series.
“This was a huge win for our franchise, a huge win for our team,” Memphis coach Dave Joerger said. “The crowd was fantastic.”
Mike Conley and Courtney Lee both finished with 11 points for Memphis, who have yet to lose this post-season with Conley in the line-up.
MVP Stephen Curry finished with 23 points for Golden State but was 8-of-21 from the field, including 2-of-10 outside the arc. Klay Thompson had 20 points, and Harrison Barnes added 16.
“I have to play better for us to win games, especially on the road,” Curry said. “I hold myself to a high standard. I haven’t reached it yet. So looking forward to the challenge of getting that level in Game 4, setting the tone, could be a different outcome.”
For a second straight game, the Grizzlies made the Warriors look nothing like the team that was the NBA’s best home or away during the regular season. The Warriors missed seven straight threes during one stretch, several wide-open looks, and the Grizzlies harassed them into a handful of ugly turnovers.
The Warriors went just 6-of-26 from three-point range, tying their season-low at 23.1 per cent, and 19-of-28 at the free throw line.
“They’re learning,” Kerr, the first-year coach, said of his Warriors. “It’s part of the process. You see teams go through this all the time in the play-offs. It’s the only way to figure it out, to go through the pain of losing a game like tonight.”
The Grizzlies improved to 7-2 overall in Game 3s since 2011 and 6-1 when playing that game on their home court. With Game 4 at home on Monday night, the Grizzlies have their sights set on ousting the West’s No 1 seed for the third time in their five-year play-off run as they try to reach their second conference final in three years.
“We understand what our strengths are, and of course at the end of games we’re not going to panic,” Gasol said. “We might not play great or we might not make the shot or we might make mistakes or we might get really slow. But we’re going to stay in the moment. We’re going to play the next possession always, and we got to try to get stops.”
Memphis outscored Golden State 46-32 in the paint and outrebounded the Warriors 44-39. The Grizzlies forced 17 turnovers they turned into 22 points, offsetting the Warriors’ 22 fast break points.
Golden State trailed by as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter and tried to recreate their big comeback after being down 20 in Game 3 of their opening series at New Orleans. The Warriors got within 88-84 on a fast-break layup by Barnes with 3:16 left.
Lee hit a three, then Gasol beat the shot clock with a long jumper changed from a three after review. Draymond Green turned it over, and the Grizzlies finished the win.
The Warriors were up 15-10, a lead that didn’t last long as the Grizzlies put together a 25-9 run spanning the first quarter and into the second for a 35-24 lead.
Memphis led 55-39 at half-time, the second straight game the Grizzlies held Golden State below 40 points in the opening 24 minutes. Golden State had been held to 40 points or less only once all season.
*Associated Press
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